Pvt bus firms refuse to hike fare despite GR

Mumbai: Although the Maharashtra Government has come up with the government resolution for the private bus operators to increase the fare up to 50 per cent of the existing charge of state transport buses, the bus organisation said that they would not increase fare to give trouble to the passengers.

It also thinks that the government wants to save the ST buses by coming up with such GR as the government thinks that the passengers will shift from the private buses to ST buses once the private operator will increase the fare.

General secretary of Mumbai bus malak sangthana, Harsh Kotak said, “At any given point of time, we are charging atleast 25 per cent less fare than Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), This GR is nothing but to cover inefficiency resulting to overcharging the passengers by MSRTC. The private bus operators have no intention to loot the travelling passengers and we will never charge 1.5 times higher than MSRTC.”

The sangthana has over 33,000 buses, which are from Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

The private buses plies across the Maharashtra and other states too. He said, “We will continue serving our passengers in efficient and cost effective manner.”

According to Mr Kotak, the fare prices of private vehicles increase only ten days in a year.

There are more 1,200 buses, which operate interstates and close to 800 buses ply intra-states.